Drones, silently hovering over Obama’s address

President Obama never used the word “drones” in his State of the Union address. But drones were all over it. They’re the unspoken force shaping his agenda.

A minute into the speech, Obama reported, “After a decade of grinding war, our brave men and women in uniform are coming home.” That’s all Love is in the air for Will and Emma’s wedding he had to say about foreign affairs for the next 38 minutes. It wasn’t about going somewhere. It was about returning.

It was nearly 10 p.m. before he got to his first paragraph about events abroad: “Tonight, we stand united in saluting the troops and civilians who sacrifice every day to protect us. Because of them, we can say with confidence that America will complete its mission in Afghanistan and achieve our objective of defeating the core of al-Qaida.”

Afghanistan? The core of al-Qaida isn’t being destroyed in Afghanistan. It’s being destroyed in Pakistan. We don’t have troops in Pakistan. We have drones.

“Already, we have brought home 33,000 of our brave servicemen and women,” Obama said. “Tonight, I can announce that over the next year, another 34,000 American troops will come home from Afghanistan. This draw-down will continue. And by the end of next year, our war in Afghanistan will be over.”

The war in Afghanistan may be over, but the war in Pakistan will go on. Except we won’t call it a war, because we don’t have skin in that game. We have metal. We can go on killing al-Qaida and Taliban operatives without thinking of it as a war.

The president went on: “We are negotiating an agreement with the Afghan government that focuses on two missions: training and equipping Afghan forces so that the country does not again slip into chaos, and counter-terrorism efforts that allow us to pursue the remnants of al-Qaida and their affiliates.”

Counter-terrorism efforts. In other words, drones.

To defeat al-Qaida and its allies, said Obama, “We don’t need to send tens of thousands of our sons and daughters abroad, or occupy other nations. Instead, we will need to help countries like Yemen, Libya and Somalia provide for their own security, and help allies who take the fight to terrorists, as we have in Mali. And, where necessary, through a range of capabilities, we will continue to take direct action against those terrorists who pose the gravest threat to Americans.”

A range of capabilities. Direct action. Drones.

The only weapons Obama discussed openly were the firearms he wants to restrict at home. He recited the litany of recent tragedies: Tucson, Newtown, Aurora, Oak Creek. These incidents dominate our national thinking about violence, and they punctuated the president’s speech, because greater threats have receded. We don’t fear another 9/11. We don’t worry about body bags coming home from another war. The drones will take care of it.

Can drones do all that? Can they substitute for deployments overseas? Can they protect us from attacks? Can they free us to focus on the domestic economy and ignore the rest of the world? Not really. But this is the role they play psychologically. They hunt and kill people who want to harm us. The drones make us feel safe. We don’t have to worry about them, because they don’t bleed. And we don’t have to worry about what they’re doing, because we can’t see it. What happens in Pakistan stays in Pakistan.

"because we don’t have skin in that game" - I can live with that. The fewer American boots on the ground to get the job done the better. If a drone can take out a person or group in house, why send in 20 soldiers to risk their lives. Put the terrorist and all locations on notice that anytime we find them, a drone will be on the way. If "innocent" people don't want to get hurt, then don't sleep or eat with the terrorists. For those terrorist that hide outside a drones coverage area, use a cruise missile.

BestPresidentReagan wrote:

02/14/2013

Of all the publications the liberal Monitor could choose to publish - they wade deep into the realms of the leftist weeds to produce this bird cage liner